Latest
‘We did as we were asked’: PM defends the Voice a year on
Anthony Albanese says his ill-fated pursuit of the Voice to parliament was at the behest of Indigenous leaders.
- Phillip Coorey
David Rowe cartoons for October 2024
David Rowe is a multiple Walkley award-winning cartoonist. He draws a daily political cartoon and one for the Chanticleer column.
- Updated
- David Rowe
Lehrmann ‘Australia’s most hated man’ as Ten seeks $200k
Network Ten is demanding Bruce Lehrmann pay $200,000 before he can continue his appeal; union boss forced to hide amid CFMEU crackdown. How the day unfolded.
- Updated
- Lucy Slade
Suppliers, pollies reject supermarket bid to shift blame
Both major parties have hit back at Coles and Woolworths while suppliers say shoppers are only paying a fraction of cost rises.
- Ronald Mizen and Angela Macdonald-Smith
‘Not remarkable’ that Coalition disagrees with the US: Paterson
After weeks criticising Labor over differences with the US, shadow home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the opposition also held a different view to the US on a ceasefire.
- Ronald Mizen
No quid pro quo for China trade breakthrough: Labor
China’s removal of trade bans on Australian rock lobsters wasn’t in exchange for something else, the assistant trade minister says.
- Updated
- Wayne Heeley
Opinion & Analysis
Why there’s no free lunch in government
The Albanese government is still struggling to break out of a post-Voice gloom, with new policies failing to stop the lingering sense of drift permeating Canberra.
Columnist
White demographics did not drive the Voice vote
It wasn’t old, white voters who made the Voice referendum fail. The Yes campaign aimed at elites, and took the rest of Australia for granted.
Indigenous advocate
Vic Liberals’ policy vacuum opens the door for teals
Readers’ letters on the infighting within Victoria’s opposition; federal Labor losing its way and running scared; gas supply; handouts for surgeons; and the value of mass genetic screening.
Contributor
Albanese retraces history, promotes Asia’s collective power
The prime minister says Australia’s peace and prosperity resides firmly in South-East Asia.
Political correspondent
Yesterday
- Opinion
- Political leadership
Why there’s no free lunch in government
The Albanese government is still struggling to break out of a post-Voice gloom, with new policies failing to stop the lingering sense of drift permeating Canberra.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- Voice to parliament
White demographics did not drive the Voice vote
It wasn’t old, white voters who made the Voice referendum fail. The Yes campaign aimed at elites, and took the rest of Australia for granted.
- Nyunggai Warren Mundine
This Month
More AFR readers support Dutton’s Middle East stance than the PM’s
Many Financial Review readers support the opposition leader’s stance, while others see it as a wedge in his attempts to gain political advantage.
- Max Mason
Queensland Labor promises free school lunches in a $1.4b vote grab
Economists say the cash splash is another example of state governments making it harder for the RBA to reduce inflation and cut interest rates.
- James Hall and John Kehoe
Vic Liberals’ policy vacuum opens the door for teals
Readers’ letters on the infighting within Victoria’s opposition; federal Labor losing its way and running scared; gas supply; handouts for surgeons; and the value of mass genetic screening.
- Analysis
- China relations
Albanese retraces history, promotes Asia’s collective power
The prime minister says Australia’s peace and prosperity resides firmly in South-East Asia.
- Tom McIlroy
Israel-Gaza war becomes an election minefield for Labor
The emergence of Muslim community independents is a threat to electorates that Labor has held for generations, but the party is more worried about the inner-city Greens.
- Ronald Mizen
As Victorian Labor loses ground, Libs get knives out for their leader
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto has never been more popular with the public, but he faces an uphill battle to convince his colleagues he’s election-winning material.
- Gus McCubbing
In Queensland, abortion rights are a mainstream campaign issue
Debate over abortion laws has reignited in spectacular fashion in Queensland as the state’s ‘Bible belt’ shows its conservative colours.
- James Hall
Aussie gas will keep flowing, Albanese tells Japan
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his first face-to-face meeting with the new Japanese leader to talk up security of gas imports.
- Tom McIlroy
Desperate colleges shore up numbers before student caps kick in
Parliament is yet to pass a bill allowing the government to limit overseas student places, but there is a lot of manoeuvring on the assumption it will go ahead.
- Julie Hare
Bottom line stronger, but third budget surplus unlikely
A third successive budget surplus is a rank outsider, despite the bottom line already being $5.3 billion better off than forecast
- Phillip Coorey
A year after PM’s darkest hour, Labor still searching for a way back
But this week marked a turning point - when the government sharpened its focus to raw electoral politics.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- US election
The US presidential election is a contest of economic illiterates
There is a lot of crazy economic policy being spruiked by both sides of American politics, but thinking people know serious, substantive policy debate will take place next year.
- Steven Hamilton
Harris rips Trump for criticism of federal storm response
Donald Trump claims Kamala Harris let hurricane victims suffer; Less than $500m of China impediments remain after lobster deal, Penny Wong says. How the day unfolded.
- Lucy Slade
Raw wounds and toxic politics: One year on from the Voice
After last year’s push to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution ended in defeat, the groups remain deeply divided.
- Tom McIlroy
Iemma’s lobby shop going gangbusters amid NSW planning overhaul
Three of Iemma’s current and past clients might appear to benefit from the NSW government’s decision to seize planning controls of eight key Sydney sites.
- Campbell Kwan
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
Desperate Labor resorts to the ‘wedgislation’ it used to mock
This government is still in its first term yet is deploying end-of-days tactics – an observation not lost in an anxious backbench.
- Phillip Coorey
Nuclear inquiry, March budget: PM clears decks for election
The government is escalating the pre-election strategy with an inquiry designed to discredit the Coalition’s nuclear power plans.
- Phillip Coorey
Private markets scrutiny at odds with ‘faster, targeted’ mergers
Changes to merger laws aimed at giving the ACCC power to scrutinise share purchases that don’t result in outright ownership have raised concerns among competition lawyers.
- Ronald Mizen
